Friends of the 502 Group

The Friends of the 502 Group is pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached with E-traction Kits to sell their recently-introduced 4mm scale etched-brass Class 502 kits.

These high-specification kits have been designed so that any combination of unit can be built – including the unit as preserved (driving motor 28361 and driving trailer 29896).

To purchase a kit, please visit www.class502.org.uk/shop, where all the variations are available. However, due to the production process, kits will only be dispatched once a suitable number of orders for a particular variant have been made.

Every kit that is bought will help fund the continuing restoration of the sole-surviving unit, which is currently stored at Tebay, Cumbria. On Saturday 29th October the public will have their first opportunity in over a decade to inspect the interior of the unit as the Group hold the first Tebay Heritage Transport Rally. As well as the unit, there will be a variety of commercial and military vehicles on display. Further information and advance tickets are available from www.tebayrally.co.uk.

Advance tickets are now on sale for the Tebay Heritage Transport Rally. A variety of buses, vintage and military vehicles have already been confirmed for the day.

Buy them now through our Tebay Rally subsite.

Another successful work party took place on 9th July. As well as some tidying of the trailer coach to make the interior presentable for the rally, the unit also had a little lick of paint. It now has white wheel tyres, steps and buffers. Group member Paul Gorton snapped these pictures for us.

The unit now also sports a subtle advertisement for this Autumn’s Tebay Heritage Transport Rally.

Remember, if you wish to help out at any of the workparties, or any other group activities, membership is affordable and open to anyone!

The Friends of the 502 Group are pleased to announce the first Tebay Heritage Transport Rally which will take place on Saturday 29th October 2011.

The main focus of the event will be the official handover of the unique Class 502 Electric Multiple Unit from the National Railway Museum to the Friends of the 502 Group. There will also be an opportunity for the public to view the progress made with the restoration of the driving trailer car.

Entries to the Rally are now invited from owners of historic commercial, military or public service vehicles, together with any transport preservation societies who wish to have a stand at the event. Any interested groups can download an entry from the Rally web site.

Please bookmark www.tebayrally.co.uk which will be updated with more information as the event approaches.

If you are visiting this site after reading about us in the Southport Visiter – welcome! We are pleased to have been featured in Southport’s weekly newspaper with a great article (and pictures) all about the group.

The article is in the current issue of the Southport Visiter newspaper. You can read it online (without the pictures) on the newspaper’s web site.

Apologies to anyone who has written to us at our PO Box address recently. There appears to have been some delay in mail reaching us. We have only today received some letters which were posted several weeks ago. We will deal with them as a matter of urgency.

Sorry if you were affected by this. We have raised the issue with Royal Mail and hope that this hold up will not occur again.

Just a quick report of the work that was carried out at Tebay last Saturday.

We had the largest number of people ever for a work party (including one member who had only joined last week!) so a range of tasks were undertaken.

The inside of the workshop container was in need of a re-organisation, so, once some of the trailer coach seat cushions that were stored in there were moved to the motor coach, some new shelving was erected. This allowed the wooden framework that had been removed from the trailer to be stored safely and provided us with space to store the spare parts we hold for our 110v generators.

The interior of the container was also painted white, so that the recently installed lighting works more effectively. A start was also made on re-arranging the lockers and work-bench so that a small kitchen area can be fitted out (complete with sink and water heater).

The other container also received some attention, with scrap items being identifed and stored and the remaining items re-arranged so that there is more space available for storage of larger items.

Work on the unit itself was confined to starting to catalogue the spares that are stored within the motor coach – most of which have not been moved since the unit first went to MOD Kineton from Southport!

25 years have passed since the preserved Class 502 unit made its debut run in preservation. On 6th April 1986 the unit was one of the attractions at the Mersey Railway Centenary celebrations, operating a shuttle service between Birkenhead North and Hoylake on Merseyrail’s Wirral Line.

Here are some photos of that day from the Class 502 archives, courtesy of group member Paul Gorton. Click on the thumbnail images below to enlarge, and be sure to check out Paul’s Flickr page of the day, which also includes pictures from the open day at Birkenhead North depot, and shots of the preserved Class 503 Wirral EMU which was in service on the same day.

Another work party took place last Saturday with more work carried out on trailer car 29896. Some of the operating equipment for the sliding doors has been removed for inspection. Work also continued on other ongoing tasks inside the vehicle.

The next work party is on Sunday 3rd April. If you are a member, details will be provided to you. If you wish to join in and help out, please see our membership page and you could be signed up to the group in time for next Sunday!

For several years in the late 1980s, the preserved 502 was a regular performer on various special trains on the Merseyrail electric network. One big event came in September 1987, when Southport was visited by the renowned steam locomotive Flying Scotsman.

In conjunction with this day, the preserved 502 operated a special service between Southport and Sandhills.

Between journeys, the opportunity was taken to pose the two very different pieces of traction next to each other.

The man standing in the centre of the picture below is Joe Halsall, who was a well-known and much-respected Southport-based driver. Joe was the regular driver of the 502 unit whilst running in preservation, and was a good friend to the Northwest Friends of the National Railway Museum who restored the unit to working order following withdrawal by BR.

For Joe’s last time driving the 502 prior to his retirement, he was surprised with a special headboard to commemorate the occasion. In the picture below, Joe (right) poses for a photo next to the 502 at Southport.

These pictures were supplied to us by Richard Priestley who was involved with the unit at Steamport and also manufactured the “Northwest Friends” and “Joe Halsall Special” headboards visible in the above pictures. Many thanks to him for supplying these pictures to us. If anyone else has any photos of the unit they’d like to share, please contact us.